Anti-Semitic, anti-American: An age-old bigotry arises again

Klansmen and neo-Nazis march in Charlottesville (Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS)

This is not good news, on the Jewish holiday of Purim or any day: Anti-Semitic incidents in the city nearly doubled last year.

The Anti-Defamation League documents 1,986 anti-Jewish acts of vandalism, assault and other incidents nationwide last year, the highest one-year increase in four decades of data.

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The five boroughs of New York City, the heart of the diaspora, saw the sharpest spike.

Purim tells the story of Esther, who saved her fellow Jews of Persia from the hangman and turned the rope on Haman, the would-be Hitler of the 5th century B.C. Lesson, repeated throughout history: How a society treats minorities, Jews notably, tells much of the health of that society.

Last year saw the desecration of Jewish graves, bomb threats and the horror of torch-waving Nazis and white supremacists marching in Charlottesville chanting, "Jews will not replace us."

That symbolism was especially awful as the Nazis and Klansmen stomped through the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, a prophet of liberty and religious freedom.

George Washington, the first Virginian President, wrote in 1790: "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid." And we say, Amen.